How about a fully vegan summer retreat in the French Alps?
Amanda and her husband have put together a truly sensational 4-day retreat at their chalet situated in the French Alps above the popular alpine town of Morzine.
The couple have spent the last four years renovating their old farmhouse and it is now a beautiful 5-bedroom retreat.
They plan to offer retreats throughout the year and this summer 2019 outing is your first chance to experience the beautiful setting.
The summer vegan retreat takes place between June 27 and 30, 2019.
You get to eat vegan food, hike through stunning countryside, enjoy a few yoga sessions, visit local towns, or just kick back on the terrace and drink in the views.
The cost of this stay is £450 per person based on sharing a twin room.
If you would like to find out more or book a space, you can email info@poleski.co.uk and let yourself be known to Amanda.
Sassy Plants (formally That Sloppy Vegan) are having another pop up event in South London this month!
The second supper club is taking place in Balham on Friday April 12, 2019 at Brother Marcus located at 9 Chestnut Grove, London SW12 8JA.
The dinner will run between 7:30pm and 10:00pm.
Wanna know about the menu?
Enjoy a middle eastern inspired, totally vegan dinner. Sassy Plants is all about promoting incredible flavour within an entirely plant-based menu for vegans and non-vegans alike.
Four courses will be accompanied by great music and the awesome atmosphere of Brother Marcus.
Check out the sample menu below:
Appetiser – Selection of Meze
Starter – Kofta with Twisted Tabbouleh and Smoked Sauce
Main – Ras-el-Hanout Grilled Aubergine on Mushroom Infused Buckwheat & Pearl Barley with Seasonal Vegetables
Dessert – Warming Apple Tart with Cardamom Infused Vanilla Cream
Big news this week involves a new vegan lasagne offering on the latest Ryanair inflight menu.
Coupled with all the other amazing advancements we are seeing around the, veganism is showing no signs of slowing down.
The vegan lasagne (and other snack and drink offerings) on Ryanair got me thinking about a few predictions I made in the ‘Future of Veganism’ chapter of my book Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t.
See this short excerpt below:
As we explored in the vegan travel chapter, life on the road for those wanting plant-based sustenance is improving and I believe we are set to see significant improvements. It stands to reason that the more we flex our compassionate consumer muscle, the more airlines will be willing to explore making vegan food available to passengers. In a ‘you read it hear first’ moment, I expect a major airline to replace their vegetarian inflight option with completely plant-based menus very soon. It might have already happened by the time this book hits shelves.
Not only is it a more inclusive policy to make the vegetarian meal a vegan option (everyone can eat vegan, only vegetarians and some animal eaters would choose to eat the vegetarian option), it makes complete financial sense. Why create an extra meal category when you can cover a lot of bases with vegan food? Airlines operate just like any other business looking to squeeze extra profit and I think we will see some fundamental changes to vegan food offerings based on the bottom line alone.
The vegan food expansion for travellers will not just be confined to eating in the air. Food on trains, ferries and other forms of transportation has already started to become more inclusive for vegans. A recent blog post guest written for me by a reader showcased a fancy three-course meal on a ferry company called Viking Line that runs between Stockholm and Helsinki. I’ve even ordered a hot vegan burger whilst traveling on a train down the Californian coastline. I honestly almost fell over when I saw a vegan burger option featured on the dining carriage menu.
I’m thrilled to see my predictions starting to play out and I’m excited to see how things will change during the next year or two.
Surely it isn’t unreasonable to think we will have a fully vegan airline menu in the not too distant future?!
To read more of my predictions you can order my book via Hive (makes order via your local independent bookstore), Amazon, WH Smith, Foyles, and Audible.
Hospital food has had a bad reputation for decades. Never mind vegan hospital food, which I’ve never had to try and find before now. I recently had an operation which required an overnight stay in a London hospital. Ahead of time I contacted the hospital to put in my request for vegan meals and hoped for the best.
They confirmed vegan meals would be provided for me but couldn’t give me exact details of what would be available. I had the lowest of expectations and asked my loved ones to be on standby to source a packed lunch from outside if needed!
The day came, the operation was a success and this was my post-op meal, a combination of lunch and dinner due to the timings on the day.
They brought me round a jacket potato with double beans, a hummus sandwich on brown bread with crisps and a side salad. Dessert was a fruit bowl with melon, grapes and pineapple pieces. I was impressed! Nothing here was groundbreaking but it was thoughtfully put-together, healthy, tasty and filling.
Even my visitors were impressed! Though perhaps this was because there was no need for anyone to do an emergency dash to the nearest food retailer.
The real fun came the next morning when breakfast arrived. They brought me avocado on sourdough toast, a large bowl of porridge with maple syrup, another round of toast with peanut butter and another fruit bowl.
It’s one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had, which was extra welcome in the circumstances!
Following-up from issues that covered such things as disordered eating, chronic illness, and mental health, the latest release of T.O.F.U. Magazine focuses on burnout, and it’s now available.
Whether it’s in a school, a sanctuary, an online community, or anywhere else, burnout is a possibility for everyone, and T.O.F.U. #14 contains the stories of just how it’s touched a number of vegans. From an in-depth conversation with Michelle Carrera of Chilis on Wheels to a reflection on just what it means to lose a rescue animal, this issue helps to illustrate just why we need to talk about burnout and what it is we might be able to do to avoid it.
“As a vegan for over a decade, I’ve seen people come and go from within the community,” says Ryan Patey, T.O.F.U.’s Editor and Co-Founder. “I’m not just talking about ex-vegans who went back to consuming animal products for whatever reason. I’m also talking about those vegans who decided to step back from being active in the community. In the latest issue, I wanted to focus on how this can happen, and why we should try to stop it.”
As always, the magazine doesn’t avoid being critical of the vegan and animal rights community, and it promotes a diversity of voices as people from around the world share their views on burnout and what it means to them.
Interested readers can find the latest issue, as well as all past issues, available through a pay-what-you-can system in the online store.
Plymouth Vegan Company is a brand new vegan supermarket located at Faraday Mill, Plymouth.
Not only is the store your one stop shop for compassionate groceries, it is also home to some fabulous vegan events that I know locals are going to adore.
Plymouth Vegan Company is only a few weeks old but has already established itself as THE place to shop for plant-based good. Shelves are packed solid with pantry staples, vegan treats, cheeses, household products, and everything else you need to eat kindly.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BurM3JRAB7J/
And in even better news, Plymouth Vegan Company has a series of events planned for their customers.
You can get along to their first vegan cheese tasting event on April 9, 2019.
Vood Bar is a fabulous vegan food truck set to impress in Cornwall very soon!
The truck is re-opening after a Winter break on April 5, 2019 with a little re-opening/anniversary party at Polgoon Vineyard and Orchard in Penzance (all their wines and ciders are vegan!). The party will take place between 4:30pm and 7:00pm.
Following on from the opening, you will be able to find the food truck either at their usual pitch at Sennen Cove during the weekends from 10:30am to 6:00pm (more days during school holidays) or at local festivals/events.
The food business updates its hours regularly on social media so that people know where to find them. Follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
When the Summer season picks up, they’ll be open Wednesday until Sunday with longer hours.
The Vood Bar menu is designed around the kind of food people want to eat by the Cornish seaside, using local ingredients. Truck operators Zel and Shardae love travelling and love trying out vegan versions of traditional dishes when they travel, so they wanted both locals and tourists to be able to have traditional Cornish experiences, such as eating ‘fish and chips’ on the beach, when visiting them.
Their regular menu items are:
Cider-battered ‘tofush’ and battered chips, served with tartare sauce and lemon (and they’ll be introducing an optional extra of pea fritters this year)
All day breakfast bap with streaky seitan, scrambled tofu, veggie sausage and garlic mayo
Bean and mushroom seitan burger with a Cornish BBQ ale sauce (optional extra of cashew cheeze and streaky seitan)
Cornish pasties – ‘traditional’ or cashew cheeze and onion
Hummus and crunchy veg wrap with Cornish dukkah
Vood Bar also serve various cakes and biscuits such as rosemary-infused lemon drizzle cake or G&T cupcakes.
This year they’ll also be adding a few extra regular menu items such as a balsamic tofu, avocado and mango salad wrap and blueberry bran breakfast muffins.
Vood Bar make everything themselves (besides the bread, which we source from a local baker) – all of the tofush, seitan, cashew cheeze, pastry, sauces, sausages, everything!
If I tallied up the requests received through my blog and social media over the years, one of the top ten topics asked by readers would have to be vegan Yorkshire puddings and where to get them.
If you are not from the UK and are currently having a WTF moment, Yorkshire puddings are savoury pastries that are served with traditional roast Sunday or festive dinners.
Yorkshire puddings are used to soak up the excess gravy and they are delicious.
Sadly, all store bought Yorkshire puddings I’ve ever seen are non-vegan and we have all been struggling to make our own with varying degrees of success.
But now there is a light at the end of this tunnel that has been barren of vegan Yorkshire puddings.
Mabel’s Vegan Yorkshire Puddings is here to save the day.
Mabel’s offer classic AND gluten-free versions, and all of their Yorkies are palm-oil free. In better news, the packaging is compostable plastic and they also use eco-flo biodegradable filler for shipping.
Mabel’s Vegan Yorkshire Puddings are based in Manchester and ship UK-wide. Shop online now here.
I’ve seen size comparison photos on their social media and the Mabel’s Yorkies are HUGE!
